Why am I linking to this? Because at some point in my childhood, naming no names and places, my room was repeatedly raided by a terribly cute younger child. The parents of this child said "No, no," but they obviously thought she was cute and clever. So the burglaries continued as long as I lived within twenty miles of the brat. And now the brat's grown up, and guess what her career's been like? She now cleans houses, and I'm told she really cleans houses...because her business partner is in jail.

If you know a child whose talent seems to be for theft, please don't give this child the message that s/he is cute and clever. Two-year-olds learn best from physical pain, like a sharp slap on their little thieving hands, and frustration, like being locked into a nice clean dog-type cage at night for a week. Children who start stealing later in life are likely to learn better from embarrassment, like having to return the stolen article, beg pardon for having stolen it, and/or pay at least twice its market value.